Guns, Germs and Steel

The book teaches us about the reasons why some places developed civilisations way before others and why some never developed any civilisation at all and how this is not related to some humans being smarter or intellectually superior to others. It answers some questions I never even thought of like why Europeans conquered the Americas but the Native Americans never invaded Europe.
I understand some are bored with such ideas and want to get over the ideas of racism and cultural superiorities but unfortunately our world is still full of racism and bigotry and it's all due to ignorance. It's such books with such knowledge that opens up the eyes of blind racists and bigots.

All about the factors that have led to some countries and continents doing better than others - full of fascinating insights that answer questions like ‘why weren't European invaders repelled by rhino-riding African shock troops' (the answer in brief - the shape of the African continent, the relative shortage of domesticable African plants, and the fact rhinos can't be domesticated but European horses were). Can't recommend this enough.

An exhaustive look at the history of human society, with an attempt to explain global inequality in that light. Diamond's basic theory is that favourable environmental conditions led to more harvestable crops and more large, domesticable animals evolving in Eurasia, especially in the Fertile Crescent. This gave the societies living there, starting with the Mesopotamians, an evolutionary ‘leg up' that allowed them to develop more complex, technologically advanced societies, which gave them more access to guns, germs, and steel, which ultimately led to European societies becoming world powers.

I had this on my nightstand for a couple of years, picking it up now and then and reading sections of it. It's an interesting text, but goes on rather long and presents its ideas as being more revolutionary than they are (I know that my Intro to Anthropology class I took in first year university covered a lot of the same ground). I know elements of this theory have factored into some of the science fiction novels I've read in the past, as well, such as Sawyer's Neandertal series. Still, Diamond presents the information well and includes lots of personal anecdotes that help the statistics and facts flow a bit more easily.

Gran libro. Creo que da una nueva perspectiva respecto a los motores de la evolución humana, es bien sabido que se necesita un exedente en la producción para el desarrollo de las artes pero me parece muy sensato asociarlo también al desarrollo de la sociedad en general. La teoría de las latitudes y la importancia de factores como el grado de desarrollo al llegar a un nuevo territorio y las especies nativas del mismo como pilares para entender las posibilidades de un grupo humano me parecen también ideas fundamentales que se logran expresar clara y sencillamente en este libro.

I am 100% certain that some of the things I read in this book I will still be mentioning in conversation years and years from now. That's when you know it's good.

The classic informative style of “tell you the whole theory in the first chapter and then spend the rest of the book fleshing it out”.

I also now know so much more about Papua New Guinea than I expected.

Fantastic work.